Do you have any top tips for when it comes to building a pitch deck
Aaron O'Leary
49 replies
Pitch decks are hard, they can make or break your attempt to get funding. I've seen a ton of advice go around on how to optimize a pitch deck, do you have any tips?
Replies
Jovana Madjovska@jovana_madjovska
Keep it concise! Stick to crucial information and around 10-15 slides. Begin your pitch deck with a strong opening slide that communicates your value proposition.
Tailor your pitch deck to your audience. Research and understand their interests, and needs, and customize it to address their pain points.
And use visually appealing graphics - charts, and images - to convey complex information and make it more engaging!
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Product Hunt
@jovana_madjovska Love this, especially the sticking to crucial information!
I find this to be the best framework and was back by Docsend data on 20k pitchdecks. Investors tend to focus most on âWhy Now?â âMarket Sizeâ âBusiness Modelâ and âTeamâ. You donât want to put a ton of text on any slide, have as much data to back up your claims as possible and keep things simple since your audience is probably getting lots of pitch decks daily (if youâre pitching for investment that is).
Cover Slide
Company Purpose
Problem
Solution
Why Now?
Market Size
Product
Competition
Business Model
Traction
Team
Forecast
Investment Ask
Who Wants to Be a Unicorn (Unicorn Game)
@brando_claymail I'll add more from docsend. on average investors spend 1 min 20 seconds per pitch deck or 10 seconds per slide
so each slide has to be just one message and total slides of 10 to 15
Product Hunt
@brando_claymail Oooooh nice structure!
Who Wants to Be a Unicorn (Unicorn Game)
@brando_claymail 100%
Itâs just really hard for founders to understand that. We think of investors as these knowledgeable ppl that need to be bombarded with info.
I do this, if the deck cannot be understood by a 5 year old, itâs too complex
@new_user__1472023b27b65162bafb2d8 what does âdssâ mean?
Know who you're presenting it to and tune it accordingly.
As you asked for tips, investors mostly (maybe, only) focus on the 'Why Now' and 'the problem' part. As they fund, they'll look for the problem that is essential to be solved (urgency in customer market), wide and big enough to be solved (wider the TAM, bigger the revenue)
So, you may focus on these two and tell a beautiful, impactful story as to why your product has to be there NOW and SOLVE THOSE PROBLEMS.
It should be like great movies where they show powerful antagonist/s and slowly elevate the hero's part to finally thrash them all. Hope it helps in some way..
Product Hunt
@mukhil_maran This makes a lot of sense!
@mukhil_maran Nice hear that from you sir ?
I would say it completely depends on the audience; there is no one-size-fits-all approach. When I was working on my startup, I used to have four different pitch decks:
- For Investor,
Focus more on Execution Plan, Team Strength & Advisory board, Sales & Product Economics, Financial projections, and IRR.
- For Government Grant, Accelerator Program, or any Start-up pitch competition
You slides should talk more about your USP, Competitive advantage, Impact metrics, Marketing opportunity (TAM), Team.
Ruumio
Sorry, this is going to be a long one:
There is a lot of information available on how to structure your deck, what information you need and how many slides you should have. This also always depends on the audience.
But what I think is equally important or even more important is design. Yes, a lot of people will say that nobody cares about your beautifully designed slides and fancy animations. But hear me out:
The cases where you can actually pitch in-person are actually rare. And when you do, it's a lot more important how you present yourself and your story than what information you have on your deck.
In most other cases your are going to send your pitch deck as a file, before you even get the chance to pitch it.
Investors are going to skim through hundreds of pitch decks. Like your product, design your pitch deck in a way that makes it really easy for them to go through and pick up the most important information, as quickly as possible.
So what makes it easy for them?
Slides have a certain design hierarchy to it: The first thing you see are visuals, then headlines, then text. Use visuals to catch attention. Followed by the headline that sums up the most important information of that slide. Text should be optional. Don't assume anyone is reading your text. If they want more detailed information, they can read it. Otherwisey, make sure that everything can be understood within a single glance.
The first slide is the first thing they see. So make sure that anyone can understand what you are doing, right on the first slide. Use few words. Again, don't make them read.
Don't think about slowly building momentum only to reveal the good parts at the end. You'll never know if they read your whole pitch deck: Instead, use the strongest arguments first.
These are just my opinions. It's not statistically proven or anything, but it's how I approach it personally.
Based on the analysis of 20,000 pitch decks by Docsend, it has been determined that the following framework is highly effective. Investors tend to prioritize key aspects such as 'Why Now?', 'Market Size', 'Business Model', and 'Team'. It is advisable to avoid overcrowding slides with excessive text, provide supporting data for claims, and maintain simplicity, considering that investors likely review numerous pitch decks regularly.
Cover Slide
Company Purpose
Problem
heure de priere chelles 77500
1) Clear
2) Concise
3) Catchy
These should do the job.
Define your problem and solution clearly.
Less is more. Use fewer words on each slide.
A clear demo, walkthrough or feature-wise explanation of your product is a must-have.
Include details on tailwinds - why now? why this opportunity? why you?
No more than 12 slides, no matter what stage you are raising for.
Include tangible and quantitative achievements of your team in the team slide.
Clustr
Whatever you do, donât make it longer than 12 pages, there is no excuseđ
Nack AI
Having a teaser deck, 5-6 slides, helps for sparking interest without giving up everything in one go and potentially becoming overwhelming.
Keep it short!
I agree with you, this is one of the hardest things that I also went through when trying to find investors.
So Iâll just share a few things we did while creating our ones:
1. Do some research on pitch decks done by other companies similar to yours. Lookout for the pattern in their slides, and figure out how you can relate.
2. Just start! Open whatever design tool youâre going to use ( we used Canva) and put down the main headings on each slide and whatever that comes to your mind under each.
3. Forget about design at the start, only focus on the content, how do you want to tell the story of what youâre building.
4. Now once you have an idea about the storyline and some content to start with, go ahead and polish it.
5. Donât be afraid to present your pitch deck to people and get feedback. See if they can understand the product without you having to explain it again.
6. Next youâll have to repeat the steps again and go over everything. Just keep polishing every time you pitch to someone with their feedback.
Also keep in mind youâll have to have different versions of decks for different kinds of investors.
Hope this will help! And good luck with it. đđź
keep it simple and sweet, Kissđ
Liffery
Create a teaser pitch deck with a maximum of 10 slides. It will really force you to nail your story and focus on the most important elements. The long version is then âonlyâ an extension of this. Also what we found is iterations.. we tried it one way.. didnât like it, changed it and tried again.
there is a search feature at product hunt. just write "pitch deck" n it ll give you list of apps. thank me later đą
Having been on every side of pitch and funding decks, my genuine advice is to materialize the message you want to communicate and then find somebody super-skilled to work with on the deck itself.
It'll depend on a lot of factors, but even at the $100-250 price point, there are a lot of talented folks who can help you build a deck that ends up saving you a ton of stress during funding.
May I recommend this video from Michael Skok and Harvard Innovation Labs.
https://youtu.be/YkH-NvWHpRo
Absolutely! Building a compelling pitch deck is crucial for effectively communicating your business idea or project to potential investors or stakeholders. Here are some top tips to consider when creating your pitch deck:
Start with a compelling story: Craft a captivating narrative that highlights the problem you're addressing, your solution, and the potential impact of your idea. Connect with your audience emotionally and make them invested in your vision.
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